1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to produce bundling apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus adapted to band various bundles of produce.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The process involved in banding produce bunches, as for example bundles of long stalked produce like onions or celery which are usually vended in bundles, requires at present many manual operations, which at today's labor costs entail a large price increase in the cost of food. Generally, both the selection of the size of the bundle, and the banding step itself, is presently done by manual labor. Thus, labor time is expended both in the selection of the proper bundle size and in the banding. Most often stalked produce is banded by rubber bands following which the bundles may be either enclosed in a cellophane wrapper or are placed for storage in some storage facility. The additional step of wrapping the produce entails further manual labor, again raising the cost of the produce.
This involvement of manual labor has led to many attempts in the past which were directed at automating this part of the food production process. Most such prior art attempts, however, required complex automated systems which because of their complexity were too costly for many small truck farm operations. Furthermore, because of their complexity such automated prior art systems did not readily adapt to the various kinds of produce which a typical farming operation must entail as the farm land is cycled in order to maintain the productivity thereof. This lack of flexibility again raised the cost to the small farmer to the point where a small farming facility is now not competitive with large farming cooperatives.